Patient-Reported Outcomes and Functional Recovery After Treatment for Laryngeal Cancer: A Scoping Review of Instruments, Domains, and Clinical Integration.

Background/

Objectives

Treatment for laryngeal cancer often impacts voice, swallowing, communication, and quality of life. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly used to evaluate survivorship, but their application and connection with objective functional measures vary widely. The objective was to explore how PROMs are used in laryngeal cancer research, identify the functional areas they assess, analyze their link with objective clinical outcomes, and identify methodological gaps in current studies.

Methods

This scoping review followed PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Searches were conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science from their start until April 2026. Included studies involved adults with laryngeal cancer reporting PROMs and/or objective functional outcomes. Data on study features, PROM tools, evaluated domains, and how PROMs relate to objective outcomes were extracted and summarized descriptively.

Results

Ninety-five studies with 10,807 participants were included. Most were observational (84.2%) and conducted at a single center (72.6%). Voice-related outcomes were the most common (86.3%), followed by psychological (72.6%) and swallowing outcomes (65.3%). Less frequently assessed were nutritional (22.1%) and supportive care domains (41.1%). The Voice Handicap Index family was the most used PROM group (30.5%). Over half the studies reported PROMs and objective measures separately without statistical integration (51.6%), while only 13.7% performed analytical integration, and none used predictive multivariable models. Significant variation existed in PROM choices, assessed domains, and integration approaches.

Conclusions

PROM use in laryngeal cancer survivorship research is heterogeneous and predominantly focused on voice-related outcomes. Limited analytical integration with objective measures hampers a comprehensive understanding of recovery. There is a need for standardized, multidimensional assessment frameworks that include functional, nutritional, psychosocial, and objective outcomes to effectively support patient-centered survivorship care and rehabilitation planning.